As you may recall, hamburgers are one of the very few things I need to be happy. And I typically don’t like “fancy” burgers. I suspect it must be powerfully tempting to mess with the basics, especially if you’re a restaurateur and want your burger to get noticed in a city like Paris (or Chicago), but I don’t think truffles or aioli or Kobe beef make a better burger. Having said that, I liked this burger despite the fact that it IS messed-with and fancy. I think it’s because I chose to think of it not as a hamburger but more as a kind of small steak on a large crouton.
This recipe represents an attempt by an accomplished contemporary French chef to create something that would be recognizable as the iconic American food that it is, and yet still appeal to the French palate. So in go cornichons, capers, tarragon and an onion marmalade (which I liked a lot, despite the fact that mine was a disturbing grey color). Parmesan obviously isn’t French but it’s EU and who doesn’t like Parmesan cheese? The more I think about it, the harder it is to believe that the French didn’t invent the hamburger. The notion of transforming a (usually) cheap cut of meat into something yummy and desirable — and on bread, for crying out loud — just seems so French to me.
In reading Dorie’s introduction to this recipe I learned that hamburgers have attained a kind of frenzied popularity in France of late and that various interpretations can be found in restaurants haute and not-so-haute. This article from 2008 provided an interesting assessment of the trend. My favorite? The French have indeed embraced hamburgers but can’t quite bring themselves to eat them with their hands. Vive la difference!
Here is more information on Salle Playel (and it’s well worth reading about).
My favorite hamburgers are from Danny Meyer’s Shake Shack on East 86th, and I won’t carry on about them here other than to say that anyone coming to NYC should put eating one on his or her list of things to do (with the exception of “the vegatarian”).
But these Hamburgers that Dorie writes about sound excellent to me if I do what you did and acknowledge that they are not hamburgers in the true American sense of the word.
I had that burger on a trip a few years ago at the original Shake Shack location (in Union Square park?) it is very good. Ironically, I think it’s “Chicago style,” isn’t it?
I’ve probably eaten more Danny Meyer food in NYC than anything else, but I’m not complaining!
Kate,
First Shepherd’s Pie, then Hamburgers. Isn’t there anything, oh, I dunno, French in “French Table”?
Bien sur, and you will hear about the amazing souffle very soon!
Kate, I love the way you decided that hamburgers should have been French — so fitting. And FuzzyChef, the ‘shepherd’s pie’ is known as Hachis Parmentier in France and it’s a beloved dish in the country, an homage to the scientist who helped the French embrace potatoes as table fare rather than feed for their livestock. There’s not a single thing un-French about it, even if it is deliciously well known to Americans: – )
Dorie, thanks for stopping by! Yes, I always think of the French as being highly innovative and using everything (I think most of this came from reading Jacques Pepin’s memoir; he says that it still shocks him to see anything thrown away in the kitchen). They have had their lean times!
Dorie,
I was just teasing Kate for picking as her first two recipes things which are better known from other countries. I expect that the British got Shepherd’s Pie from the French, but you won’t get them to admit it.